The ICC today confirmed details of the 25 umpires and six match referees who have been appointed to officiate in the ICC Cricket World Cup in South Africa next February and March.

All eight members of the Elite Panel of umpires and the five Match Referees will be on duty throughout the tournament. They will be supported by 11 members taken from the ICC's International Panel of umpires, and one additional Match Referee:

Clive Lloyd, Ranjan Madugalle, Mike Procter, Wasim Raja and Gundappa Viswanath. The Panel has been supplemented for the duration of the tournament with the appointment of Denis Lindsay, from the Supplementary Panel of Referees.

ICC International Panel Umpires

Each of the International Panel umpires announced today has previous One Day International, and in some cases Test match, experience.

Their selection for World Cup duty follows detailed performance assessment of the Panel by the ICC's cricket operations managers.

Final appointments were approved by ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed, in consultation with Sunil Gavaskar, Chairman of the ICC Cricket Committee-Playing.

ICC International Panel Umpire appointments:

UMPIRE
COUNTRY
DOB
ODIs
TESTS

Darrell Hair
Australia
30.9.52
75
44

Simon Taufel
Australia
21.1.71
33
2

Arani Jayaprakash
India
20.6.49
14
13

Neil Mallender
England
13.8.61
6
0

Peter Willey
England
6.12.49
26
24

Brent Bowden
New Zealand
11.4.63
19
3

Aleem Dar
Pakistan
6.6.68
10
0

Nadeem Ghouri
Pakistan
12.10.62
6
0

Brian Jerling
South Africa
13.8.58
12
0

TH Wijewardena
Sri Lanka
29.8.61
11
2

Kevan Barbour
Zimbabwe
23.10.49
12
4

Full biographical details of all ICC international umpires and referees can be found on the ICC website at www.icc.cricket.org

"With more than 50 games to be played during the World Cup there will be a heavy workload for all match officials. The International Panel was created for occasions such as this, to supplement and support the eight full time members of the Elite Panel. These appointments represent a great opportunity for these umpires to demonstrate their abilities on the biggest stage of all," commented ICC General Manager-Cricket, David Richardson.

In all, the ICC has appointed 25 umpires to officiate in the tournament. These include the eight members of the ICC Elite Panel, 11 members of the International Panel and two umpires from the United Cricket Board of South Africa (UCBSA) First Class list, Ian Howell and Shahid Wadvalla.

The final four appointments are from the participating Associate Member nations: Michael Henry from Canada, Chris Pickett from Holland, Rockie D'Mello from Kenya and Jeff Luck of Namibia.

International Panel umpires will be appointed to on-field and third official duties, while the UCBSA and Associate umpires will act as fourth officials for the Group stage of World Cup matches.

[Edited on 12/12/2002 by Eyes_Only]

Simon Taufel---ICC Umpire Of The Year 2005/2006/2007

Proud Member of CW Green

Proud member of the Stedingham Jets Grade Cricket Team

NSW Blues---ING Cup Champions 2005/2006

3rd May 1955-19th January 2004----RIP Hookesy

"Just keep your mouth shut and I'll only have to think you're stupid." The golden rule of umpiring according to the world's best cricket umpire, Australia's Simon Taufel.

Well, the thing with Darrel Hair is that hes made some real shockers over his career. Despite that, hes also made some of the best and fairest decisions ive ever seen and still remains a very good umpire.

Personally I think that all three of the Aussie umpires we've got representing us are average at best. I just find myself shaking my head continuously at some of the decisions all three have made in the past, especially when I look at guys of the calibre of Venkat, Bucknor or Koertzen. It just makes me question whether these three are indeed the best we have. If so, the state of umpiring at lower levels must be shocking.